YouSaid · the spoken record

Power

lines on the record: 1,841
first: 2013-08-06
most recent: 2019-07-09
sittings or episodes: 165
sources: un-security-council

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“The Heads of State and Government of Intergovernmental Authority on Development Plus, South Sudan's neighbours and their partners, are now calling for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to have an enhanced capacity - particularly in Juba - in response to the deteriorating security situation there. The African Union Assembly has endorsed this decision; the Peace and Security Council has as well. And they are all recommending that regional forces contribute to UNMISS. We all need to support them.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source
“The renewal of violence in South Sudan earlier this month was horrifying, but sadly not unexpected. It was horrifying because, as we all know, in only a few days 300 men, women and children were reportedly killed, tens of thousands were displaced, and 4,500 metric tons of humanitarian aid - food that would have fed 220,000 people in dire need for a full month - was looted. Yet the renewal of the conflict in Juba was also foreseeable because of the inability of South Sudan's leaders to work together and put the interests of the people of South Sudan ahead of their own.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source
“Amid the violence in South Sudan, the BBC reported recently that a group of musicians called the "All Stars" gathered to write a song speaking out against revenge killing. The song, written in multiple South Sudanese dialects, includes the lyric "I wish my talent could be a weapon. I would use it to protect my people." There are so many South Sudanese who share that group's desire to protect people from conflict just to keep their families safe. We must harness our tools to help create an environment in which such talent can be harnessed and in which peace can, at last, take hold.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“We all know that the conditions in Somalia and the circumstances and the steps that I have described are not only difficult but downright daunting. And they will, of course, take time. But military victories alone will not bring peace, unless the Government takes concrete steps to establish peace and extend its reach. While South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia each face very different challenges, the common principle is that success in peacebuilding requires political will. There are only so many workarounds that the region and the Security Council can come up with.The Council has authorized a peacekeeping mission for each of those countries in order to help restore stability; but at every stage, the Council has to remain focused on taking steps to ensure that leaders make choices in the service of peace.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“Just as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia has made progress towards a durable peace based on the success of the political steps taken by the Government. The Council should welcome the agreement on an electoral model for 2016 and encourage its swift implementation as a step towards universal direct elections by 2020. Yet for that process to succeed, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and his Government must accelerate the training of the Somali national army and the process of building State institutions, and all of us must, of course, chip in to support the Government as they do that. In particular, the Government needs to strengthen the protection of human rights, including by showing respect for free expression and the media and by holding security forces accountable when they commit violations.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“The Federal Government must match the achievements of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in building security with commensurate steps to build institutions to keep people safe. AMISOM's troop contributors deserve the Council's immense gratitude for the Mission's ability to improve security for the Somali people, especially around the capital. Their sacrifices, especially over the last year, have been mind-blowing. The United States condemns in the strongest terms the attack this past week by Al-Shabaab on the United Nations base at the Mogadishu international Airport - just the latest in a wave of heinous attacks. AMISOM. has a critical role to play, as the Security Council has recognized and endorsed, but the Government does as well. And that is why the Council's interest in Somalia does not end with AMISOM's performance.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“According to United Nations reports, the Government arbitrarily detained dozens of people during opposition rallies in April and May, and clashes between protesters and security forces led to deaths and injuries on both sides. With major rallies planned for this very week, and with the return of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi yesterday, we call on the Government and security forces to respect the fundamental rights of citizens to peaceful assembly. Again, that is not a matter of purely domestic concern, but is an extension of the objectives that the Council has supported since MONUSCO deployed six years ago to help build a fragile peace. Thirdly, and finally, Somalia's leaders have to show the political will to extend State authority and develop functioning democratic institutions.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“As the deadline for elections approaches, instability, as we have seen, is growing, which is why the United States has stressed the need for an environment that supports international efforts to bring Congolese stakeholders together to determine a way forward. And yet, at precisely the moment a dialogue is needed to resolve these tensions, the Government is closing off space for the political opposition and civil-society groups to assemble and has not taken adequate steps to release political prisoners. In recent months, the Government has continued to harass and imprison politicians and civil-society activists, and peaceful protests have all too often ended with arbitrary arrests, injuries and even death.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“On the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have a country now entering a later phase of its peacebuilding process as it prepares for elections. Further progress depends on President Joseph Kabila's political commitment to upholding the Constitution. The Congolese have spent many years building a relative peace with the support of billions of dollars invested in the peacekeeping mission there, that is, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic People's Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). President Kabila is barred from running for a third time when his term expires at the end of the year but there are serious concerns that elections will not be held in accordance with the Constitution.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“In practical terms, the parties need to carry out the reform pillars in the August 2015 Peace Agreement, professionalizing the security sector, carrying out economic reforms, promoting justice and accountability and drafting a constitution. What all of this underscores is that peacebuilding, as others have noted, is itself a form of conflict prevention, and it is one form that collectively we need to double down on in a country where too much tragedy has been happening for too long. This formula is not revolutionary or even new; the difference is that the members of the Security Council, together with partners in the region and the international community, must redouble our collective efforts to influence the choices made every day by individuals who comprise the South Sudanese leadership.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“In the immediate term, this means working with and present South Sudan's leadership to provide for security in Juba, to safeguard freedom of movement and to provide for unfettered humanitarian access. It also means answering the calls of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union for strengthening UNMISS so that the Mission can better protect civilians and help establish a secure environment so the parties can in fact make political progress. Restoring security in Juba may be necessary but we all know it is far from sufficient. South Sudan's leaders must govern on behalf of their people and demonstrate the political will for peace.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“In 2011, we invested heavily in South Sudan's future by giving the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS) a mandate to assist the State at all levels - building institutions, fostering economic development, reforming the security sector and promoting human rights. At every step the Mission sought to collaborate closely with the Government of South Sudan, taking pains to avoid imposing solutions. UNMISS was designed with peacebuilding best practices in mind. It was South Sudan's leaders who failed to live up to their end of the bargain by being unable to put their personal power struggles aside. We now have to come together as a Council, as an international community, around a single approach to end the violence in South Sudan and, more importantly, to prevent its recurrence.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“Yet there has been no effort to hold the perpetrators accountable, which then compounds the tendency to ascribe collective guilt, which in turn fuels ethnic targeting, which in turn further fuels the cycle of violence. Amid all of the foregoing, to quote a 42-year- old from South Sudan named James Benjamin Wani, who asked a simple question of a reporter after days of fighting in Juba: "Why do our leaders not want to sit down and solve their problems? Let them hear us. Let them cry. We do not want fighting. We want peace." The level of misrepresentation of the population by leadership that will not commit to the implementation of the steps that the international community has rallied behind is clear. For years we have been asking questions similar to those asked by this 42-year-old man.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“The international community has spent billions of dollars trying to avert a famine in the country, money that, if not for this man-made conflict, a conflict that contributes to severe acute malnutrition, prevents planting and stymies the economy completely, could have been dedicated to building roads, economic development, girls' education and boys' education; it has been a total waste. And yet we have to continue to mobilize resources to try to keep this long-suffering population living with some basic dignity and living - surviving - in the first place. Gruesome atrocities are being committed daily, with civilians targeted and killed, women raped, homes looted and destroyed. Both Government- and opposition-affiliated soldiers have been implicated in these horrors.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“First, the violence in South Sudan this past month shows what happens when political leaders fail to commit to peace at the start of a peacebuilding intervention. In just four days of fighting in Juba, from 7 to 11 July, more than 36,000 people were displaced. The United Nations reported that the number of refugees who arrived in Uganda from South Sudan on 21 July was the largest single day total for this conflict in more than two years - some 8,337 new arrivals, many of whom had spent days on foot, often with little more than the clothes on their backs, to reach safety. Women and children make up more than 90 per cent of the refugees who have left South Sudan since 7 July.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“National ownership of peacebuilding processes is important, as many speakers have highlighted today and as many more speakers will continue to do. But national ownership cannot be a pretext for the Council or the international community to defer reflexively to Governments when we know their practices are undermining or failing to enhance peace and security. And this happens too often. Especially when the Council authorizes major peacekeeping missions to restore stability, we must hold political leaders accountable for committing to the process of stopping violence, abiding by the rule of law and strengthening State institutions. I will set up the importance of sustaining political will across the different stages of the peacebuilding process, drawing upon South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia as examples.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“I thank Secretary-General Ban, Minister Mohamed and Commissioner Chergui for their briefings. I offer thanks to each of them as well as to the Ministers who have shown the importance of the issue before us by making the long trip here to New York. We are very grateful. Preventing conflicts and promoting stability in Africa is obviously an immensely important subject for the Security Council to focus on. The list of political, economic and social factors to debate is long, as is the list oftools that we have at our disposal. But at a moment when conflicts are re-emerging in Africa and too many other States are on the brink, the Council needs to do more than debate lessons learned. It needs to reaffirm the principles that are fundamental to ending conflicts and take concrete steps to translate them into practice.”
2016-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7750 (2016) · source
“Think of the profound character of a group of young women who, after being taken from their classrooms in a dangerous area where they just wanted to complete their exams, taken in the dead of night by Boko Haram, now are determined as ever to go back to that community and who just want to make the rest of us proud. I have no doubt that these girls will, as will so many other young men and women in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and the Niger. If only, we help empower them to do so.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“Those were girls who, prior to their abduction, had not completed secondary school. Now they are taking accelerated courses to prepare them for the lives ahead. Eight young women, along with 16 other Chibok girls, were studying for a university degree, and they were pursuing a range of professions. All spoke ambitiously and idealistically about studying medicine, engineering or accounting. All of them shared something very important in common: they were determined to go back to Chibok and help rebuild their community. One of the young women told me, "We want to make the world proud".”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“It just so happened that the delegation that I led to the region coincided with the two-year anniversary of the abduction of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. As everyone present here knows, all but one of those girls are still missing, presumably held by Boko Haram. I had an opportunity to meet with eight girls who were taken captive on the awful night in April 2014 when their school was overrun. Herded into open-roof trucks, a few of the girls managed to escape by actually clinging to the branches overhead as the trucks were being driven away from the school. A few of the other girls I met escaped because one of the trucks mercifully broke down and a number of girls jumped out of the backs of the truck. The girls I met were studying at the American University of Nigeria in Yola, where they had been given scholarships.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“It means building law-enforcement bodies that are actually accountable to the communities they serve and work to earn their trust. It means amplifying the voices of religious leaders who condemn terrorism and seek to exercise their faith in moderate and peaceful ways. It means rooting out the rampant corruption that has long siphoned away resources from the people who need it most, and fostering inclusive institutions that serve all people, rather than one group at the expense of another. That is a daunting agenda. And one of the challenges we face now is that we have to simultaneously tackle those root causes and address this agenda at the same time that we keep people alive in the here-and-now who desperately need our humanitarian support. Let me conclude.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“We have provided more than $253 million in humanitarian assistance to countries in the Lake Chad Basin in the past two years. We, like the United Kingdom, are considering now what more we can do - because the situation demands it. More countries need to step up immediately. In addition to strengthening those military and humanitarian efforts, we also need to address the chronic problems that helped to fuel Boko Haram's rise in the first place, and which, if left unaddressed, will lead to further instability and insecurity. That is my final point. We have to play the long-term game in countering violent extremism. That means investing more in the education of young people from marginalized communities, which can open up opportunities that provide a brighter path than the one offered by terrorist groups who exploit marginalization.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“Most chillingly, when the group arrived, they found 1,233 graves near the camp, which had been dug in the last year; 480 ofthose graves appeared to belong to children. And camp residents told MSF of 40 deaths in Bama in the first three weeks of this month due to starvation and treatable illness. Those are the camps we can reach. In the parts of Bormo, Nigeria. Lake Chad and Diffa, the Niger, that are unreachable, one can only imagine how infernal the conditions likely are. Yet despite that overwhelming need, the $535 million in humanitarian appeals for the affected countries, as we have heard, are grossly underfunded. In Nigeria, only 28 per cent of the appeal has been met, in Cameroon the figure is 22 per cent and in Chad only 17 per cent.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“We therefore have Boko Haram unleashing this true evil, an evil that has seen them pioneering the theft of children and the use of young girls as suicide bombers. But, alongside that evil, we have seen such unbelievable altruism and goodness. I think we of greater means should all be inspired by those heros to do much more. The situation in the camps is as dire, as we have heard. Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) recently was able to reach the city of Bama in Borno state, Nigeria, which aid workers have been unable to reach for two years due to insecurity. It is home to approximately 10,000 people. MSF found that 15 per cent ofthe children there were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and nearly 1,500 people had to be evacuated.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“As we heard from Under- Secretary-General O'Brien, an estimated 2.5 million people have been displaced within their countries by Boko Haram, while some 150,000 have been pushed beyond their borders. More than 90 per cent of IDPs in the region have been taken in by family members or communities - a testament not only to the tremendous generosity of the people of the region, but also to the huge strain that has been placed on them. A security guard at a university I visited in Yola, Nigeria, had at one point taken in more than 50 members ofhis extended family who had been displaced by the violence. He is a national hero, and there are tens of thousands of such heros across the region.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“To be effective, those military efforts must respect human rights, as the Council importantly underscored in its presidential statement S/PRST/2016/7, adopted in may on efforts to counter Boko Haram. When Government security forces round up civilians on nothing more than suspicion, use torture to try to extract information, apply scorched-earth tactics or stand by as vigilante groups carry out mob justice or commit any other abuses with impunity, they alienate the very civilians whose support and cooperation is crucial to combating Boko Haram effectively. As we continue to strengthen the military effort against Boko Haram, we also have to do much more to address the region's dire humanitarian situation- and I stress the word, "dire".”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“While members of the Council and United Nations Member States unanimously agree that Boko Haram constitutes a threat to international peace and security, unfortunately few are supporting the countries on the front lines of this fight. We applaud the European Union and the United Kingdom for their contributions to the MNJTF. For its part, the United States is supporting the MNJTF and its members with advisers, intelligence-sharing, logistic support, training and non-lethal equipment totalling more than $71 million of assistance, as well as providing $40 million through the Global Security Contingency Fund for training and equipment to help our partners enhance border security. We urge more Member States to step up and support that effort.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“That does not always come easily, and it has been very challenging in that region, but the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) is playing a growing role in improving such coordination, as well as in planning and intelligence sharing. Those efforts have produced important gains in recent months, including the freeing of thousands of hostages, destroying dozens ofterrorist camps and-this is worth stressing - recovering approximately 75 per cent of the territory that Boko Haram once controlled. Those gains must be preserved, and that requires the international community's supporting and shoring up any weak link in the security posture of the region.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“More than 50,000 people were displaced as a result, many of whom were already IDPs or refugees. On 29 June, a young boy reportedly blew himself up in the town of Djakana, Cameroon, killing 11 people who had gathered after breaking the fast during Ramadan. I would like to discuss briefly the security and humanitarian efforts that we need to vanquish this monstrous group. It goes without saying that a robust military effort is critical. Because Boko Haram has demonstrated its ability to move back and forth across international borders, Governments of the region must be able to seemlessly coordinate their efforts to pursue the terrorists across those same borders.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“Virtually everyone whom we met had a horror story of having seen homes looted and burned, men and boys murdered, and women and girls raped and abducted. A 14-year-old girl whom I met in a camp in Cameroon told me that when Boko Haram came to her village, one of the fighters told her, "Either you marry me and become my slave, or I will kill you and the rest of your family". This girl became a slave so that her family could live. Imagine a child being forced to make a decision like that. The girl eventually managed to escape her captors, but she will carry the trauma and, perversely, the guilt that she suffered for the rest of her life. As we all know, atrocities like these persist. On 3 June, for example, Boko Haram attacked a security outpost in the Niger's Diffa region, reportedly killing 24 security personnel and wounding 111 more.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“In April, at the request of President Obama, I led a United States Government delegation to Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria to meet directly with those leading the efforts to counter Boko Haram and respond to the humanitarian disaster that it had created, as well as of course to hear from the communities directly affected by the group's horrific violence. Our delegation included representatives from a range of United States military, humanitarian, political and economic agencies, reflecting our understanding of the comprehensive approach that is needed to defeat Boko Haram in an enduring way and prevent another group like it from emerging in its place. As part of the trip, we visited camps of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees displaced by Boko Haram.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“I thank you, Sir, for convening today's meeting on the continuing, ever-more urgent crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, which, as others have noted, deserves greater attention from the Security Council and from the broader international community. I thank Under-Secretaries-General Feltman and O'Brien for their briefings and efforts, and those of their teams, to help tackle the significant security and humanitarian challenges in the region. Mr. O'Brien knows the region better than most after a lifetime of dedication to its people, and I think that his personal commitment is deeply appreciated and very moving.”
2016-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7748 (2016) · source
“We are deeply invested in trying to make this work, but we have got to see the siege of Aleppo end and access restored - or all of our good intentions are going to be for naught and this conflict is going to continue, along with the terrorist threat and the refugee flow that emanate from it, with all that has meant for the neighbouring countries and for Europe, and all that it will mean for the global order. Letus start with Aleppo. Let us get Aleppo right. Let us save people. And let us continue to invest - again, in the kind of cooperation that is needed to bring this conflict to an end. Part of that cooperation means distinguishing between terrorist actors and those who would deliberately target civilians - as the regime does - and those who do not.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“We saw a reduction in violence, which was a huge relief to people in those parts of Syria who got to experience that reduction in horrific violence. But let us be real: the description at the outset of the Russian Ambassador's remarks was not a description of Syria. It might be a description of some kind of Potemkin village in Syria, but Aleppo is burning. Aleppo is being besieged. The single lifeline to the city, and to nearly 300,000 people, has been cut off by this regime, backed by that regime.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Therefore, from a peace and security standpoint, a core reason to distinguish between parties to the cessation of hostilities and terrorist groups, between terrorist fighters and civilians who find themselves stuck in their vicinity is to save innocent lives and to promote peace and security. Thirdly, as I said in my earlier remarks, we are deeply invested in the United States-Russian effort to bring peace to Syria. I think it is fair to say that in the early days of that effort we saw a material return and significant benefit for some people in Syria. We saw more access to besieged areas than we had ever seen before. Every one of the besieged areas, as I also noted my remarks, has now been reached, albeit some places with only one convoy.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Fundamentally, if the like and the unlike are lumped together, if the parties to the cessation of hostilities are lumped together with those who have rejected the cessation of hostilities, if civilians are lumped together with the Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State in the Iraq and the Sham, and if those who have been lumped together are targeted along with terrorist groups, not only will innocents just minding their own business who do not deserve to be targeted be killed - something that has happened in spades and that the Syrian regime has done from the beginning of the conflict - but the seeds for more conflict will be sown, more terrorists will be created and a conflict that has gone on and caused too much heartbreak already will be prolonged.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“I would like to say a couple of words in response. First of all, I think that it would be very useful if the Russian Federation could circulate the results of its investigation to the Council. Personally, having been very concerned about Russian strikes - particularly on hospitals in Aleppo and other areas that the Syrian regime has decided to pursue during the cessation of hostilities - we would welcome those investigations but would also be curious about whether Russia, in those investigations, has ever acknowledged harming civilians in its strikes in the Syrian theatre. It would be very useful to have that information shared with us. The second point is, I think, more fundamental, as one of the things that has created such division over the Syria conflict.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Imagine for just one moment what it must feel like to realize that, within in a few days, every shelf at your local market will be bare and that you may have no place to go and no way to afford the food that your 7-month-old infant desperately needs. All of us here must do our utmost to ensure that Maher's fear does not become a reality - a reality that far too many in Syria are already enduring.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Ultimate success is of course far from assured, but we know that we have a responsibility to try and exhaust all diplomatic options. Moving forward requires a period of reduced violence. If Aleppo remains under siege, it is hard to see how that is going to work. As we speak, Aleppo's residents are struggling to find food and medicine for their families. Maher Abu al-Walid, a 25-year-old resident, said in an interview, "We are not starving yet, but we are all panicking now". He has to support his wife and 7-month-year-old daughter, Sham, as food supplies are running low and prices are increasing.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“In conclusion, last week, Secretary Kerry travelled to Moscow in an attempt to address the two main forces undermining the cessation of hostilities - first and foremost, the rampant violations by the Al-Assad regime, including the targeting of both civilians and groups that are supposed to be protected, as well as offensives led by the Al-Qaida affiliate in Syria, the Al-Nusra Front, which increasingly poses a threat to our interests. In Moscow, the United States and Russia agreed on a series of concrete steps that, if fully implemented, could restore the cessation of hostilities and create space for Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's efforts to launch a genuine political transition process. Our technical experts have been working on the details for implementing such steps.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“This is a process that is complicated by the extremely limited access of Syrian civil society groups and others to areas controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. We are determined to do whatever we can to understand what took place. The United States goes to great lengths to reduce the risk of non-combatant casualties, and complies with the law of armed conflict in its operations. It will continue to do so. If we determine that civilians were harmed in Manbij by our strikes, we will acknowledge it and look at what steps can be taken, consistent with the policies that President Obama announced in his executive order of 1 July on pre- and post-strike measures to address civilian casualties in United States operations. This is an extremely important issue.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“In May, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2286 (2016), which calls for the protection of medical personnel and facilities. Yet hospitals, clinics and medical personnel are still being struck regularly by the regime and Russian forces. In recent days, it was reported that air strikes conducted by the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant may have caused a large number of civilian casualties in Manbij. The United States will carefully and thoroughly review any and all credible information that we can gather about the incident, including information from organizations within Syria that document harm to civilians. We are also now trying to investigate those events.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“And the regime continues to dispute the numbers in the United Nations beneficiary list - a cynical attempt to further reduce how much aid gets delivered, in the rare instances that aid gets delivered all. The United Nations should be determining what is needed, how much and where i and not the regime, which has long practiced collective punishment and indiscriminately branded civilians as terrorists. The regime's actions also continue to take a severe toll on the health sector. This month alone, forces loyal to Al-Assad twice removed medical supplies from convoys bound for the besieged community of Al-Waer in Homs. What exactly did the regime take? It took midwifery kits to help deliver healthy babies and treatments for diarrhoea. It is obscene.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“The Russian Federation is in an extremely weak position to point fingers at the United States in the Council. We look forward to Russia opening just a single investigation into strikes that have killed civilians. The situation in Syria's other besieged areas remains dire. Even excluding Aleppo, 196,500 more Syrians are living in besieged areas than were in January. These Syrians depend on sporadic aid deliveries, which are all too often disrupted by the regime's bureaucratic pretexts or by fighting on the ground. In no single month this year has the United Nations been allowed to reach even half of Syrians living in besieged areas. United Nations Special Adviser Jan Egeland recently warned that Madaya was on the brink of starvation.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Instead, despite countless videos, reams and reams of elaborate photographic evidence and hundreds of thousands of eyewitness reports gathered by credible independent actors, we get from the Syrian regime time and again only blithe, uncurious but always dogmatic denials - a cold, cruel indifference to the fate of the Syrian people. I would also note that the Russian Federation has never once acknowledged even the possible involvement of the Russian Air Force in the horrific strikes that have resulted in significant civilian casualties, nor has Russia acknowledged the huge number of Russian strikes against opposition groups that signed up for the cessation of hostilities - the very groups, in fact, mentioned by the representative of the Russian Federation.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Ibrahim Al-Leith, a volunteer first responder with Syria Civil Defence, described the long lines forming at shops, because "we are really expecting a famine in a few days". In another deeply alarming development, a video circulated last week that showed rebel fighters beheading a young boy in Aleppo. The brutal killing of this boy, reported to be l2-year-old Abdullah Issa, is appalling. The United States condemns in the strongest terms this unconscionable act as well as the unlawful targeting of children and the use of child soldiers by all parties to this conflict. We note that the opposition has condemned this crime and promised to bring those responsible for his death to justice in a transparent manner, something that we have never heard the Al-Assad regime do when faced with similar allegations of atrocities.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Imagine being a doctor in that circumstance. Aleppo's residents are not even safe when they get to a hospital. According to the United Nations, the Omar bin Abdul Aziz hospital in eastern Aleppo has been hit three times since June. Airstrikes reportedly struck yet another hospital in the J ebel Saman district of eastern Aleppo on 19 July, killing at least six civilians and injuring 17, and, as we have heard just in the last 48 hours, we have seen reports that the regime has bombed four more hospitals, including one that cared for children. Feras Badawi, a journalist in eastern Aleppo, told Human Rights Watch, "We have not seen vegetables in weeks, and airstrikes are not giving us a break".”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Russia, as a co-sponsor of the cessation of hostilities, must halt these attacks and persuade the regime to do the same, and they must ensure the reopening of the Castello Road. Russia, the Al-Assad regime and other groups fighting around Aleppo should heed the call of the United Nations for a weekly, 48-hour pause to allow for the delivery of essential supplies. Look at what people are going through: a doctor, Samer Attar, who recently returned to the United States from volunteering in Aleppo, described the scene in clinics after attacks by the Al-Assad regime: "Patient after patient, non-stop, was wheeled into the small emergency room. I saw mutilated limbs, dismembered bodies, dead children, screaming patients. People literally bleed to death in front of you and there is nothing you can do about it".”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Over the past month the Al-Assad regime flagrantly violated the cessation of hostilities by attacking Aleppo. The regime and its supporters have cut off Castello Road, the only remaining supply route for the more than 250,000 Syrians living in the eastern part of the city, severing their access to food, fuel, medicine, clean water and other essential supplies. Brave and courageous humanitarian workers such as those Mr. O'Brien described continue to try to deliver medical supplies and aid on smaller roads at great, great risk, but alternative options for delivering humanitarian aid are diminishing rapidly. Airstrikes by the Al-Assad regime and by Russia are making the use of those other roads totally precarious.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source
“Often the United Nations was able to send only a single convoy, and more often than not the Al-Assad regime removed supplies from those convoys before they could reach civilians. It was actually hard to imagine how Syria's humanitarian situation could get worse, and yet Al-Assad's military advances around Aleppo, undertaken with Russia's support, now threaten to bring the suffering of the Syrian people to a new low. We have spoken repeatedly and in great detail over the past six months about the horrific starvation of Syrians in the besieged areas of Madaya and Darayya. Eastern Aleppo, by comparison, has up to seven times as many people as those trapped in Madaya and up to 75 times as many as in Darayya. Eastern Aleppo is quickly falling victim to the Al-Assad regime's typical pattern of starve-and-surrender tactics.”
2016-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7744 (2016) · source